Transformers Review: Hound (Classic Deluxe)

Intro:

            Hound – the Autobot’s most trusted scout and recon officer – was one of those memorable characters that has his very own awesome unique ability, but for one reason or another, did not receive enough screen time that he deserved.

            He played an important part throughout the pre-1986 movie, such as being involved in the creation of Dinobots etc, but his role was gradually reduced in place of more high profile characters.

            I never had G1 Hound before – never had the chance to get him. So when, Hasbro announced that they were going to release a Hound figure under the Classic line in 2008, I knew that I just had to get him.

            Oddly though, Classic Hound also comes with G1 cassette Ravage. Yep, you heard right – a fully transformable G1 Ravage. It is kind of awkward to have Hound packaged with Ravage, because I really do not see the connections here.

            They aren’t even rivals.

            Anyways, let’s get down to business.

Alternate Mode:

            True to his G1 characteristics, Hound transforms into a military jeep-esque vehicle.

            He has virtually all the characteristics of his G1 self, from the green paintjob, all the way up to Hound’s hologram gun, which is mounted on top of the jeep.

            I really like the detailing of the figure, especially with the designers for the detailed interior designs.

            The kibbles are very minimal and are well hidden, even below the truck. I think the designers really gave this guy a good thought during designing stage.

            I love the jeep mode.

            My only complaints for this mode, although minimal, are the front wheels for wiggling directionless. Yes, you can probably manually angle both wheels in order to position them at a turning-position etc, but in most cases, the front wheels will be pointing at any directions they so well choose.

Robot Mode:

            I really like how the overall figure looks like.

            The head sculpt itself is fantastic, complete with blue light-piping; the colors and every single detail on this bot – it is unmistakably Hound.

            Articulation-wise: the head is on a ball joint, as well as the shoulders; the inner shoulders swings; the elbows bend; there is also a waist joint; the hips are on ball joints; the knees bend; the feet itself tilt forward; while the soles of the feet tilt inward, which means you can really put Hound into a variety of stance.

            While the figure may look good, he’s far from perfect. The ball-jointed hips are a bit too loose for my liking. It is fairly easy for Hound to do splits when you really don’t want him to.

            The Hologram Gun, while it can be wielded by hand, can also be mounted onto the shoulders via friction, but unfortunately, there is not enough friction to keep the gun in place and are prone to dropping.

            You can really put him into a variety of poses, which is absolutely fantastic.

Ravage:

            Yep, Hound does come with a fully-transformable Ravage figure. I have no idea why Ravage is included, but he’s there.

            Ravage of course transforms into a black-color cassette deck-inspired thingy. I said, cassette-inspired cuz he doesn’t look like a cassette to me, that’s for sure.

Ravage and Steeljaw

            Anyways, if you happen to have G1 Soundwave, you could fit Ravage into him nicely.

            Transforming Ravage from cassette mode to jaguar mode is fairly easy. I kinda like the small dude. His articulations are quite okay. The head moves up and down; all legs swing back and forth; the hind legs also swing back and forth at the hip area; and finally, the tail swings up and down.

            I like the head sculpt, and Ravage looks really menacing.

Overall:

            I like Hound and Ravage, despite the fact that they have been awkwardly paired together. I think they are both cool and worthy of any collections.

           

Recommended.

            Final verdict:

8.5/10 (Hound)

            7.5/10 (Ravage)

            8/10 (Set)        

Transformers Review: Ramjet (Classics Deluxe)

Intro:

            I have to admit, I don’t have that many Seekers in my collection. In fact, prior to Ramjet I don’t think I ever had any reincarnations of the Seekers save for the Knockoff Armada Skywarp that I got way back 2004.

            Another factor that didn’t help cause was my initial reluctance to buy any retooled figures, which I normally thought was a cheap attempt to squeeze out more cash from diehard fans; and that would eventually rule me out on getting most of the Seekers, since they are virtually remolds of each other.

            After missing out on Classics Starscream, I knew that I just had to get at least 1 Seeker, and Ramjet happened to be it.

            Ramjet, along with Dirge and Thrust were the second generation Seekers, more popularly known as The Coneheads, due to their head designs, which made them visually distinct from the original Seekers, i.e. Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker.  

            So after having him since 2007, it was about time that I review him.

Alternate Mode:

            Well, naturally for a Seeker, Ramjet transforms into a fighter jet, which I have absolutely no idea on the model and make of it.

            Unlike the original Seekers, the Coneheads are not mere re-colors of the same mould, but they are actually retooled. As you will see from the photo below, as well as future reviews of the other Coneheads, the wings designs for each Coneheads are distinct from one another, so at least you won’t feel like you are getting the same figure over and over again. 

            While the jet itself looks okay, the colors do look a bit dull and boring, probably due to its age and the white-color paintjob, and things can only get worse. As you can see from the photos, Ramjet looks more yellowish rather than white, as time goes by.

            Ramjet is armed with a couple of blasters mounted below the wings.

            The jet mode doesn’t really have proper landing gears, except for the bumps on the leg pieces and the chest piece. The fixed landing gears on the chest is actually formed by the chest “thrusters” that you will see later on in robot mode. 

            Due to its designs, Ramjet tends to sport a huge awkward gap underneath the jet, which would later be filled up by cockpits in robot mode. I wished that they would’ve done something to cover up or hide the gap, but I don’t really see how they could do just that.

From left: Generations Thrust, Generations Thundercreacker, Generations Dirge and Classics Ramjet

            Other than that, there’s not much to talk about this mode.

Robot Mode:

            In robot mode, standing at 5 ¾-inches tall, he’s the size of your normal standard Deluxe-class figure. How I miss the days when Deluxe-class figures were this big.  

            Anyways, he really looks like his on screen counterpart, and that’s a huge plus point for this figure. Again, the colors look a bit dull due the design colors, as well as the wearing of the white on this figure. 

            The two blasters can now be wielded either as guns or as shoulder cannons as depicted in the show. 

            Surprisingly for a five-year-old figure, the joints on my Ramjet are surprisingly tight, which is more than I can say about some figures nowadays.

            Anyways, articulation-wise: the head twists limitedly due to its design; shoulders are on universal joints, which provides all around motions (the shoulders may look really awkward when you try to move the shoulders outward, revealing a huge gap on the side of the chest); the elbows bend and the fists move in and out, mostly due to transformation joints; the hips are on ball-joints; the knees bend and rotate, and that’s about it. 

From left: Generations Thrust, Generations Thundercreacker, Generations Dirge and Classics Ramjet

            Overall, a really neat robot mode.

           

Overall:

While the figure looks great in both modes, the paintjob is a bit boring. The white portions on my Ramjet are already showing signs of yellowing and I feel things can only get worse from.

Still, if I am being objective with you, I think Ramjet was a good attempt.

Final verdict: I give Ramjet 8/10.

Transformers Review: Grimlock (Classic Deluxe)

Intro:

            When asked, who your most favorite Dinobot is, 9 out of 10 I reckoned would nominate Grimlock. Who wouldn’t? In the animated series, Grimlock is arguably the most powerful individual Transformers, which some point, he even defeated both Optimus and Megatron.

            Classic Grimlock is literally my first ever Grimlock figure, which would eventually be followed by the Masterpiece version. When Hasbro first announced that they were going to release Grimlock in the now-defunct Classics line, I knew that I just had to get this guy.

            Still, just how good exactly this figure really is? Read on…

Alternate Mode:

            Now puhlease tell me that you don’t need me to tell that Grimlock transform into a Tyrannosaurus Rex or T-Rex, with a weapon attached to its back.

            The figure itself is quite neat really. The mouth can open quite big. The two tiny arms are on ball-joints, although the movements are quite limited. There is also a waist movement. The hips rotate and swings outward and there are also knee articulations. The tail itself has 4 articulation points – how cool is that?

            This version of T-Rex is more scientifically-collect, meaning that it does stand upright, rather more horizontally-inclined, thus differ slightly with its original G1 depiction. 

From left: Classic Grimlock and Masterpiece Grimlock

            Still, I kinda dig this mode.

Robot Mode:

            With the signature grey and gold all over the body, the robot mode is unmistakably Grimlock. The head sculpt itself is a dead-ringer to its original G1 counterpart. 

            It this mode, the T-Rex’s feet now become the robot’s arms, while the whole head assembly becomes the robot’s legs. One funny thing about the robot’s arms is that despite the long upper arms, the lower arms themselves are quite abnormally small, which makes Grimlock looks kinda awkward. 

            The T-Rex’s tail is now detached and can be wielded by Grimlock as some sort of a whip-like weapon, along with his blaster blade.

            Articulation-wise: the head rotates 360°; the shoulders rotate and swing outward; the elbows bend; the hips are on ball joints; the knees bend and the ankles tilt downward and back up.

            As good as this robot mode looks; it’s far from the perfect. I kinda feel that there should’ve been some way for the arms to lock in onto the main body. The ball-jointed hips are a bit too loose for my liking and Grimlock tends to do split when poses are attempted.

            Anyways, all things considered, it’s a good looking robot mode.

Overall:

            It is definitely a must have for fans of Grimlock and it’s a really decent update of the G1 character. It’s ashamed really that HasTak never followed up with the other four Dinobots.

            Highly recommended.

            Final verdict: 8/10.

Transformers Review: Ironhide (Classics Deluxe)

Intro:

            Hello boys and girls, welcome back to another addition of Transformers Reviews, and as per requested by a friend of mine, we will be reviewing a figure that was released back in 2008, the Deluxe-class Ironhide from the Classics line.

            Now just in case some of you needed a little of refreshing, Ironhide was one of the toughest and oldest of warhorses back in the old G1 era. Voiced by the legendary Peter Cullen in the iconic 1984 G1 series, Ironhide sports a deep southern accent. His original G1 action figure (in which the mold was shared by the Autobot medic, Ratchet), in my opinion was hideous at best. I mean, what the heck, he got no head!!! This is mainly due to the fact that the mold was taken from the old Diaclone series, where the robot wasn’t meant to be sentient, and was supposedly driven by a human pilot/ driver. To sum it all, the original G1 figure differed too much from its cartoon depiction that it managed to put off even some diehard fans.

            As far as the animated series goes, Ironhide remained popular with the fans until his unfortunate demise during the events of the 1986 Transformers: The Movie, whose old warhorse role was eventually replaced by Kup. Back then, Ironhide was hinted to be a reengineered Dion, a friend of Orion Pax and Ariel, before the latter two were reformatted as Optimus Prime and Elita One respectively. This theory was later proven otherwise when Ultra Magnus was revealed to be Dion in the comics.

            So, such a legendary character, and although the name was reused so many times throughout the franchise, none would achieve the same fame such as the original G1 Ironhide, save probably the Movies Ironhide.

            It was inevitable that Ironhide would be the perfect candidate to receive the Classics treatment.

Alternate Mode:

            Instead of a red van, in keeping up with modern times, Ironhide now transforms into an SUV. I think it’s a neat concept considering that vans aren’t really the IN thing now. 

 

            Now, while that was a good concept, the paint job and the overall quality of the alternate mode seems to suffer horribly. There are just way too many gaps and visible cracks in between vehicles parts. I would expect that the entire mode would be a bit streamlined.

Incoherent Paint Job

            The paint job itself was done quite incoherently, with some parts of the windows are left translucent blue, while some are painted with Sky Blue, which is hideous really. The same goes for the middle of the roof. I would expect that they would synchronize everything to either paint the entire thing or not at all. 

            At the back of the truck, the license plate bears the word OREGON, which happens to be the Autobot’s home base on Earth.

            The kibbles underneath are still okay. Although the feet can easily be seen, there are enough details indicating that they tried to cover it all up. 

            Ironhide’s weapon can also be stored inside the SUV, by pegging it to a hole within.

            The wheels roll quite smoothly too, if I should say so.

            So yeah, it’s kinda like a mixed baggage, if you ask me.

Robot Mode:

            The transformation sequence from vehicle mode to robot mode is surprisingly satisfying. 

            The robot mode is a huge jump from his G1 predecessor. Gone are the headless days and the mini battle deck platform. He looks unmistakably G1 Ironhide, this is how the original figure should have looked like.

Nice Face and Head Sculpt

            Articulation-wise: the head can rotate 360°; the inner shoulders allow inward and outward arm motions (i.e. towards and away from the chest); the shoulders-proper can rotate; due to transformation, the elbows have double-jointed sideway motions, although they can be somewhat awkward, but can be handy in certain poses; the elbows-proper also bend and rotates; the wrists consist of a combination of ball joints and hinge; available waist movement; hips move in all directions; the legs rotate slightly below the hips and bends at the knees; and finally the ankles are on ball joints, although due to the designs of the feet and legs, the backward and outer sideways movements can be severely hindered. 

 

            Still, the overall articulations are quite good although I do wish they could’ve had a ball jointed head instead, because currently in most poses, it is as if Ironhide is looking down constantly. The elbows could’ve been done differently too, in my opinion, because it can feel a bit hindered. 

            Although the general aesthetics can be kinda good, the overall looks can be a bit of a letdown. The arms especially have too many screws exposed, which can really hurt the figure. Some Sky Blue parts are still visible in this mode, which unfortunately can be a bit of an eyesore.

 

 

            Ironhide also comes with a blaster, which can also transform into a small battle knife (?). It’s kind of a neat feature.

Overall:

            It’s undeniable that Ironhide is one of G1’s most memorable characters. His old warhorse attitude towards life has benefitted the Autobots tremendously. It’s quite unfortunately that his character was killed off so soon.

            I really wish that I could say that I love this figure, I really do, but some shoddy finishing just put me off. I wished that they could’ve done way better with the paintjobs and decals.

            Based on the photos I’ve seen on the web, I would suggest that you go for the Henkei Ironhide instead, because the red used there seems to be a bit darker and more vibrant; there is also a presence of the yellow stripes and the windows seems to be painted more coherently.

            Final verdict: 6.5/10.